Second Doubts
by Team Dragon Star
Summary: Entry for the TDS Valentine's Day Contest. Chichi learns that marriage wasn't the only thing Goku hadn't heard of before as she begins to have second doubts about their marriage.


**Disclaimer: TDS does not own Dragonball Z**

"So what's so special about today?" Goku asked, lying down lazily on the picnic blanket.

"You mean you don't know?" Chichi asked incredulously, propping herself up from his broad chest.

"Well... not from what I can remember," Goku offered a carefree smile as Chichi groaned.

Goku had always been clueless, he was the type of guy to help a mob of crooks chase up money, passing it off as the right thing to do. Even so, Chichi had expected that he would've known what was so special about the date. Though Valentines Day probably wasn't something that a Martial Artist would be too concerned with, especially one of Goku's caliber.

It wasn't a longshot to say that she was married to the world's strongest man-he'd defeated Demon King Piccolo twice now, while everyone else in the monster's way failed. Getting girls probably shouldn't have been a problem for such a man. Probably.

She was still half convinced that he still didn't know the difference from girls and boys, given that even on their _wedding_ _night_ a month ago, he had made no romantic advances at all. She didn't push it though, while she was a princess, she realised that she wouldn't always get her way with everything.

Although she had soon realised that they didn't do anything for an entirely new reason on that very day. He was almost like a small child in that aspect, actually, he was almost like a small child in every aspect... except physically.

Short of a bodybuilder, his body couldn't have been any more muscular-any more well defined. As far as Chichi was concerned, it was the very epitome of perfection. He wasn't so buff that feeling each muscle was like a new adventure on it's own, but he wasn't so meager that doing so was predictable. Each time she ran a slender hand across a bicep, it provided the same thrills as the last but in a different way. Almost like the different tastes of a sweet with infinite flavours.

But that wasn't the main aspect of Goku's charm, in fact it was far from it. The boyish good-looks which she'd managed to pick up on back then, when Goku was just a short, pot-bellied, monkey-tailed young boy were besides the point as well.

It was his personality-the charisma which just put a smile on her face every time he said a few words. Wise, naive or just funny; he always knew how to lighten the mood. And if he was bearing bad news, he'd make sure that it was done in a way which let you know that everything was alright.

That day at the tournament, almost a year ago, she'd been worried for her life several times. When there was a crazy green guy hellbent on destroying the world and particularly her brand-new fiance, there wasn't much you could do to not be worried about your life. But there was something about Goku, just something special which stopped her from running away from all of them.

Chichi knew that Piccolo would be defeated, not how or when but she just knew that her spiky-haired childhood friend would pull through. Even when he'd laid battered, hurt by a surprise shot from Piccolo; when he looked like he was simply going to fall over and die, a small part of her mind had been tugging at itself, telling her that Goku wouldn't lose. He wouldn't. Goku wouldn't lose, he didn't lose. And he certainly didn't disappoint.

They had only been married for a short while but his personality certainly wasn't wearing thin on her-even though it was a bit of a pain when her husband was too thick to know the difference between being chivalrous and being a brute.

However there wasn't anything she would've traded in the world to not be married Goku, she had chosen it and she loved every second of it. She wasn't sure if she could say the same about Goku-nobody really knew what went on in that head of his, but if she had to take a guess she'd say that the feeling was mutual.

Given that he hadn't really rejected her or anything, he just hadn't done anything with her. It was Goku, he probably didn't know what to do-hell she didn't really know what to do... Their romantic life hadn't escalated beyond the kiss at their marriage and even then, she was sure that Goku had been instructed on what to do by several of his friends. He wasn't the best kisser, that was for sure.

He was just so clueless... sometimes it could get infuriating. Like that time when she'd left him the task of watching the stove while she had taken a bath; they had eaten burned rice that night. There was also that time when Goku first took her to their new home, where she found that even the most basic necessities weren't within the house. Forget warm running water, or just even warm water, they didn't have an outhouse! At least not one in useable condition, and as she'd unfortunately learned Goku had become adept at surviving without one since he hadn't been able to fix it without his grandpa.

He'd told her to stop being such a bother and _just go_. The nerve of him... it had her angry for hours if not days, there wasn't anyway that she was going to _go_ amongst all the animals! She was a princess, she was better than that... well _was_, there had been one or two incidents where she'd had to sink down to that level

Fortunately, she'd managed to get Goku to repair the outhouse and also get the fireplace sorted again. Years without being used had left her adoptive grandfather in-law's house worse for wear, although the two of them soon sorted that out. They'd had their bumps and scratches along the way, particularly her, but it didn't work out to be that bad.

_"I meant to knock you out of the ring, not knock you out." _He was a careless idiot, but he was her careless idiot. Marriage wasn't something that either of them had really been prepared for in hindsight, but they would make the best of it and learn together. In theory anyway.

In many ways, she was lucky. She couldn't have been in safer hands than the world's strongest man, and arguably the kindest. But the contrary also applied, Goku wasn't exactly what she'd had in mind for husband material.

The long walks holding each other's hands, romantic candle-lit dinners and extravagant sunsets that she'd fantasised about since childhood didn't come to fruition. Not in the slightest. Instead of holding Goku's firm hand on a regular day, she was holding the handle of a frying pan as she cooked the umpteenth meal for him. On a regular day, their dinners would often consist of her serving Goku as he proceeded to stuff his face before disappearing while she was left with little to no food to eat, and a ship load of dirty dishes. On a regular day, during sunset Goku would be in the bathtub by himself, tired and sweaty after a hard day's work of training while she was expected to have boiling water ready the second he walked in through the door.

It wasn't that she did all the work either, Goku hunted-no, wrested animals in submission so that they could have a constant food source. He'd go out every few days to fetch buckets upon buckets of water from the lake a little down the mountain, a couple kilometres away, but the thing was that cooking so much food when she wasn't eating nearly a tenth of it was a little over the top. For Goku he was earning what he ate, but she was expected to cook _so_ much for him. And she was sure that with Goku's super human abilities, fetching some water every once in awhile wasn't all that hard.

Martial arts-which she was still very much somewhat of a novice at-didn't help the stove cook faster.

That said, he probably did deserve to have a little slack cut his way. Chichi almost chuckled slightly... what would a little mountain boy know about marriage? Much less one with a princess?

Did he even know what marriage was? Maybe she had tugged on the wrong strings and he had just felt sorry for her, it wasn't that unlikely. Goku's stories were often long and exciting, why on Earth would he ever remember some bratty little girl?

_"Hey Krillin, what's a bride?"_ No... he hadn't even known what marriage was. She was a fool, she'd drawn a clueless young man into something he wasn't ready for-all over some stupid little promise they made as kids. If she hadn't thrown a tantrum, the chances were that her ring finger wouldn't have a ring on it at the moment...

It was just her being selfish, trying to get whatever she wanted. She'd never stopped to consider what Goku had actually wanted... perhaps he would've wanted some of his other friends at their wedding, or maybe he wouldn't have wanted to get married so soon? She should've asked, she didn't have a reason not to, but she hadn't. She didn't even take it into consideration, just like she had never thought of whether or not he'd actually wanted to marry her.

_"Live together! With you?... When I said that was I conscious?"_ He probably didn't want to, it probably hadn't even crossed his mind. But he was Goku, he kept his promises. Her... husband... could've had a much greater future ahead of him than settling down with some loud-mouthed inconsiderate princess, being the reigning World Martial Art's Champion but she'd pushed any ideas of going on mythical training journeys out of his head.

He could've ended up meeting the _real_ girl of his dreams, not someone who he'd gotten stuck in a state of wedlock with. Maybe he'd already met her? Chichi was none-the-wiser either way and knowing Goku, he wouldn't have it in him to say so.

The formerly monkey-tailed man had been on many travels, Chichi knew that. But what she didn't know was what he'd gotten up to during them; she knew the basics, he defeated the Red Ribbon Army, participated in a few World Martial Art's Tournaments and defeated Demon King Piccolo... but during all those years, he must've had some down time.

He was eleven when they first met, and eighteen when they next met. That was the better part of his teenage years right there, and while she'd never brought herself to have a boyfriend during that time: Goku was a boy. Boys were different, they didn't necessarily save themselves like girls did and Goku didn't really remember her during that time apparently. Combined with how innocent he was-not to mention his looks-another girl wasn't out of the realms of possibility, especially since she'd gotten together with him so easily.

But Chichi really doubted it. It was Goku they were talking about, that's what it always came down to. He was too innocent, too naive, too pure and for once... perhaps that was a good thing? Another girl wasn't all that likely, but him not wanting to marry her was in actual fact probably more reasonable than him wanting to marry her.

Anyone could, after all she was just a girl which he'd seen one time and then once again seven years later, when she wound up on his doorstep attempting to take his hand in marriage. What kind of a person did that?

_"Sometimes my brain doesn't know what my mouth is saying... good thing that my heart does."_

"It's Valentines Day, Goku, Valentines Day." Chichi chided softly as all her doubts faded away into the cool evening breeze.

"Woah... I wonder what a Valentines tastes like."

Some things never changed.


End file.
